Case report

Visceral leishmaniasis with cardiac involvement in a dog: a case report

Mónica López-Peña¹ , Nuria Alemañ² , Fernando Muñoz¹ , Dolors Fondevila³ , María Luisa Suárez¹ , Ana Goicoa¹ and Jose María Nieto¹

¹  Hospital Clínico Veterinario Rof Codina, Dpto. Ciencias Clínicas Veterinarias, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

²  Dpto. de Anatomía y Producción Animal, Facultade de Veterinaria de Lugo, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

³  Dpt. Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

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Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:20doi:10.1186/1751-0147-51-20

Published:	30 April 2009

Abstract

A dog presented with cutaneous nodules, enlarged lymph nodes and oedema in limbs, face and abdomen. The diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis was established by identification of Leishmania amastigotes within macrophages from skin and popliteal lymph node biopsies. At necropsy, lesions were found in different organs, but it was particularly striking to observe large areas of pallor in the myocardium. Histological examination revealed an intense chronic inflammatory reaction in many organs, and numerous macrophages were found to contain amastigote forms of Leishmania. The inflammatory reaction was especially severe in the heart, where large areas of the myocardium appeared infiltrated with huge numbers of mononuclear immune cells, causing cardiac muscle atrophy and degeneration. Despite the severe inflammation, the number of parasitized macrophages was low in the myocardium, as revealed by immunohistochemical staining of Leishmania amastigotes. Because cardiac involvement is not usually described in this condition, this dog represents a very rare case of canine visceral leishmaniasis with affection of the myocardium.